


Fusion Dance

by Katseester



Category: Tales of Zestiria
Genre: Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Minor Character Death, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-30
Updated: 2015-10-30
Packaged: 2018-04-28 21:23:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5106221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katseester/pseuds/Katseester
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sorey has been armatizing with Mikleo far more than the other seraphim, and they're not too pleased about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fusion Dance

**Author's Note:**

> I beat Zestiria last night (haven't done the Alisha DLC yet though) and really enjoyed it! About halfway through the game I realized I was [kind of biased](http://i.imgur.com/A3ZKtvG.jpg) about who I armatized the most with, and, well...this happened.
> 
> Spoilers for endgame-ish stuff, so beware!

"Luzrov Rulay!"

Mikleo disappeared in a flash of light and Sorey felt a cool warmth envelop him completely, the familiar and comforting weight of their bow materializing in his hand. The enemies - a horde of aqua scylla, tentacles writhing along the wet ground, each growling out gutteral profanities in hoarse voices - shrieked and attacked as one. A couple prickly plantus hellions twirled behind them, their innocently swaying tendrils belying their danger. Sorey took a breath, readied their bow, and fired. And fired. And fired.

When the fight was over he felt Mikleo leave him, pulling up and away until he was a separate entity and no longer one being with Sorey.

"Good job, everyone!" Sorey called. He turned to Mikleo. "Hey, has your aim gotten better? I feel like it was easier than ever to hit the enemy."

"I may have gotten in a little practise time," Mikleo conceded. "Considering you need all the help you can get."

"Aw, hey now."

Mikleo bumped his shoulder as he swept past. "You've improved too," he said quietly. "Let's go find that wrecked village."

Lailah approached him before he could take a step, though her graceful demeanour was somewhat marred by the wobbling as her heels sunk into the soft earth. "My, you and Mikleo sure seem to be getting along," she noted airily. "It's so wonderful to see two young boys behave with such camraderie. The fact that you're willing to work together to take down an enemy that very prominently displays a resistance to your element is admirable."

"Well, yeah," Sorey said. "He's my best friend. Me and him, we can do anything together!"

"Yes, of course," Lailah said, and there was something in her eyes that conveyed just what she thought of _that_ , but she did not elaborate further. "Don't wear yourself out, Sorey," she simply said, and that was that.

\---

"That was foolish," Edna snapped. She held her parasol open over one shoulder, tilting her head and glaring disdainfully at Sorey down her nose. "You realize we could have ended that much sooner if you'd fought with me instead, right?"

A mummified corpse lay before them. Mere moments ago it had been about five times larger and one hundred percent more mobile, intent on stopping them from desecrating its domain further.

Sorey wiped his forehead. "Sorry," he said. "I just thought - well, small space and all, right? Seemed good for a bow."

"You just didn't want to ruin the architecture here with all the rock-flinging she does," Mikleo accused.

"Well you wouldn't either, right?"

"That's not the point."

"As if I would be so clumsy," Edna sneered. "Do you ever use that head of yours, or is it just for show?"

"Don't be a jerk," Mikleo huffed. "It's not like it was actively resistant to water."

"Of course you would say that. You just can't get enough of him, can you?" Edna retorted, turning her back on him.

Mikleo looked apoplectic.

"Hey, hey, no need to get all worked up, you two," Sorey interjected, attempting to diffuse the situation before the architecture _did_ get damaged. "Rose had the right idea, so it's no big deal, right?" he asked. Rose, who had been carefully avoiding their conversation, perked up at the mention of her name. She smiled and flashed them an OKAY sign.

"I'm ashamed to agree with him, but as Meebo said, that's not the point."

"Then what _is_ the point?" Sorey asked.

Edna made a sound of disgust and vanished into light.

\---

"I am so lonely," Zaveid lamented, walking alongside Sorey and Rose as they climbed the mountain path. "No one to don me, no one to make use of my power, of _me_...whatever is a man to do?"

"Pardon?" Sorey said.

"Here we are, at great heights. The height of manhood, you and I. And yet - _and yet_ \- my Shepherd refuses to acknowledge my presence _all the while_ being engulfed in my very element."

"Will you shut up already?" Rose called from in front of them. The wind was doing a good job of making her hair a tangled knot of burnt red. "You're making this trek even more uncomfortable than it already is."

"If you would just armatize with me, we could ride the wind and be there within the hour," Zaveid proposed. "Come on! Let's go surfing!"

"And leave Rose behind?" Sorey countered.

"Oh, don't mind me!" Rose laughed, not sounding very amused. "I'll just trudge the rest of the way up this mountain by myself while you two have fun!"

Gododdin was about a half-day's combined walking and climbing from their current location. Sorey had received a letter from one of the townspeople there - delivered by an out-of-breath Talfryn right before he dashed off again - that Slenge had taken a turn for the definite worse, and they wanted Sorey to be there when he passed.

"Even Rose won't fight with me," Zaveid bemoaned. "You get what I'm saying? I'm craving some human contact here. Take a break with Mickey-boy and give me a try."

Mikleo spluttered out an indignant, " _what_?"

"Er - I'm afraid I don't quite understand," Sorey said. "But I have to decline your offer."

Rose made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a guffaw, though the wind whipped it away before it could echo down the ravine.

\---

The seraphim and Rose cornered him at Pendrago's inn, waiting until he'd removed his equipment in his room before simultaneously appearing in a bright flash of light and slamming open the door, respectively.

"Geez, guys!" Sorey exclaimed, feeling his heart jump into his throat. "What's going on? Why's everyone in such a frenzy?" A thousand thoughts flickered through his mind, a hellion attack first and foremost among them.

"Sorey, we gotta talk," Rose announced. "There have been some shared concerns regarding your fighting style."

"Oh," he said, relaxing. "I was worried it was something serious. Alright then. Go ahead."

It was Lailah who took the figurative podium. "This _is_ serious," she said, clasping her hands at her front. "Sorey, we've all seen how far you've come since those days you took on the Shepherd's burden in Ladylake. You've improved greatly, as both a fighter and in the duties bestowed upon you. You've grown into a fine Shepherd, and we're all proud of you."

"Thanks," Sorey said, warmed, just as Edna murmured, "only a little."

"I understand, as your Prime Lord, that as the Shepherd you have the final say in battle. I can only offer my advice to guide you, but the decision is ultimately up to you." She took a breath, and gestured at the seraphim behind her. "The three of us - Edna, Zaveid, and I - are concerned that perhaps we aren't performing up to standard."

"I'm not," Edna interrupted. Lailah gave her a look that quite plainly said _please_ _stop that_.

"Is there something you would have us change?" Lailah continued, as though no interruption had occured. "Is there something we're doing wrong?"

"No," Sorey said slowly, confusion clear on his face. "You're all doing as well as you were before. In fact, I think everyone's been doing pretty super lately! Is there something I'm doing that's giving the impression that I think otherwise?"

"You aren't using us," Zaveid complained. "In armatization! It's always Mikleo, Mikleo, Mikleo. I don't think I've fused with you in at least a week! I feel like you're hanging me out to dry!"

Lailah made a small noise in the back of her throat, but for once had the restraint to refrain from commenting at the joke.

"Maybe it's because blue is his favourite colour," Rose suggested slyly from her position leaned against the closed door. Her crossed arms gave off a very clear _you aren't getting past me, bucko!_ impression. The look she was giving Sorey was not nice at all. "There always seems to be a lot of blue surrounding him. And, I mean, look at his shirt. I don't think I've ever seen him wear anything else."

"I wash it," Sorey protested, as Edna wrinkled her nose. "Regularly! I wash it regularly!"

"I don't think it's because his favourite colour is blue," Mikleo interjected, and Sorey felt affection swell in his breast at the rescue. It popped and deflated, however, when Mikleo continued. "And _I'm_ the one that washes it most of the time."

"See, I knew it! Favouritism!" Zaveid crowed.

"Your account is invalid for this conversation," Edna told Mikleo in a clipped monotone, "seeing as how _you're_ also part of the problem."

Mikleo blanched.

Sorey scratched his head. "Sorry, guys. I didn't know I was making you all feel left out. I guess I just sort of...subconsciously gravitated toward him."

"Because he's blue," Rose muttered, and Sorey saw Mikleo bring a hand to his forehead out of the corner of his eye.

"Because we're friends," Sorey corrected. "I mean, you're all my friends too! But I've just known him my entire life. You get it, right? Like magnets! Opposites attract, and all that." He felt like he was digging himself deeper, unable to haul himself out of the hole he'd made for himself. "We're always going into ruins, and his form just feels...better in there? It's good for all those tight hallways, y'know? We can pierce right through the enemies."

Rose snorted. Mikleo's face was now the same colour as her hair.

"But what about on the field?" Lailah asked delicately. "Not to point fingers, but you armatize with him far more than the rest of us on any given day."

"Meebo: one hundred and eighty seven. Lailah: forty nine. Edna: forty five. Zaveid: twenty two," Edna rung out, deadpan.

"You've been _counting_?" Mikleo exclaimed.

"It's not that hard," Edna answered, smug.

Sorey tilted his head. "Well...I suppose it's because armatizing with him feels...natural? Like I've been doing it my entire life, almost. Before I think better of it, I call out to him and then..."

Edna's monotone voice cut through the silence. "So basically you just like him better. _Way_ better. In all those tight hallways."

Zaveid made a sound like he was choking on his spit. "You mean _that's_ why you never want to read the wind with me? Because you'd prefer to read it in the, er, _other_ direction?" He jerked his head quite pointedly toward Mikleo in a gesture that might have been subtle had he not thrown his entire body into it.

Sorey's cheeks flushed a bright red. "That's not it! That's not the reason why!"

Mikleo looked stricken. "What - "

"Poor Meebo. Spurned in life, spurned in love."

"Hey!"

"Oh, that is quite uncalled for," Lailah admonished, but she clutched her hands to her face in a telltale sign of enjoyment.

"Oh crap, Mikleo, I'm sorry! I didn't mean it that way!"

"Then what _did_ you mean?"

"I - I - I would never be a pervert like Zaveid!" Sorey shouted. It was suddenly very quiet, save for someone pounding on the wall in the room next to theirs and a muffled, " _Shut up already_!"

Zaveid held a hand to his chest. "I'm wounded."

"You _are_ a pervert," Edna said.

"A rather insistent one," Lailah agreed.

"I kinda get uncomfortable when I fuse with you, to be honest," Rose admitted. "It almost feels like you're enjoying it a _bit_ too much."

"Only because I'm so honoured to be sharing my power with such a beautiful, capable, drop-dead-gorgeous lady," Zaveid said, the picture of a try-hard Casanova.

"Yeah, see, that's exactly why I don't."

Lailah coughed into her hand, and silence fell once more. "I see. So it was not a matter of inadequacy, as we had feared, but simply a matter of young love." She held up a hand as Mikleo opened his mouth to protest. "I'm not criticizing you. I think it's quite lovely, to share such feelings in times like these. However, Sorey - " and here she turned her gaze to him, and there was fire behind her eyes. "I would hope that this will not cause issues in the future. Please remember that we're _all_ here for you, and you shouldn't be afraid to use us as you will."

"Yes ma'am," Sorey said, cowed.

"Excellent." Lailah smiled, and Sorey felt the tension leak out of the air. "Oh, and please do away with the _ma'am_. It makes a woman feel old."

Her tone left no room for argument.

\---

"I thought she was going to kill us."

Sorey grinned ruefully. "What, Lailah? No way."

Everyone had turned in for the night, though Mikleo had refrained from taking residence within Sorey, opting instead to take a seat beside him on the bed.

"She does have a point though. You've been armatizing with me recklessly. You have to put more thought into things like this, or we really will be in trouble when it matters."

Sorey scratched his ear. "Yeah. About that. Sorry."

Mikleo huffed out a sigh. "I can't deny that it felt nice though - being needed like that. By you."

"I'll always need you, though," Sorey said, frowning, and colour creeped its way onto Mikleo's face. "What?"

"I don't know how you can say stuff like that with a straight face," Mikleo muttered, turning away to hide his flushed cheeks.

"But it's true."

"I _know_ that. It's just...when you say it, it's embarrassing to hear."

The way Mikleo tried hiding his face with his hand was cute. Sorey smiled. "I need you, you need me, we're a giant family of weirdo humans and seraphim, and I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Stop. _Stop_."

"Never. _O Mikleo, I bequeath thee, under the gaze of thine crystalline eyes, for thine lips pale as the setting moon, to place them upon mine -_ "

"That's awful! What are you trying to woo, a goat?"

"You know we can still hear you?" Edna's voice rang out. "All this sugary sweetness is making me sick."

"No, don't stop. I'm taking notes," Zaveid said, enthused.

"Zaveid!" Lailah gasped. "That's impolite!"

"So is eavesdropping on our conversation," Mikleo pointed out. Lailah gasped again.

"You're right! I am so terribly sorry!"

"Let's go to bed. All of this chatter in my head is giving me a headache." Sorey flumped back onto the bed, covering his eyes with an arm.

"No, no, no, we'll leave. Won't we?" Lailah said, and Sorey breathed a sigh of relief as he felt them leave his head, materializing before him. Zaveid curled his hands into make-believe guns and shot them twice at Sorey as he left, winking.

They were alone for merely a moment before Sorey felt Mikleo's weight shift on the bed, and then the press of lips against his own. Soft, careful, not long enough before Mikleo pulled back and sat up again.

"Since you asked," he muttered before Sorey could question him.

He hummed and couldn't help the smile slipping onto his face.

\---

He was found by Mikleo late into the night, sitting in the cluttered area where they had fought Mayvin, leaning back on his hands and taking in the night sky. Wordless, he took a seat beside Sorey, brushing dirt from the hems of his sleeves.

He was thankful Rose had had the tact to shoo everyone away from him for the night.

"The sky really doesn't look different down here," Sorey murmured. "It's the same sky we saw in Elysia, and yet we're so far away. Kind of boggles the mind."

His jaw hurt from clenching it for so long.

"Is there something you're worried about?" Mikleo asked, voice low, unintrusive. He would leave if Sorey wanted him to.

Sorey didn't want him to.

"Kind of. Aside from, y'know..." He leaned forward and opened his arms in a sweeping gesture around the area that meant _pretty much everything_. Mikleo's eyebrows drew together. "I was ready to - fire you, I guess would be the term? I didn't even think about it. I would've lost you _and_ Mayvin today if I had."

"I was ready. All of us were," Mikleo said.

"I know that. I know..." Sorey sighed. "But that doesn't excuse me for acting like a baby about it."

"You were at least on par with a toddler."

"That's reassuring to hear." Sorey let his head drop onto Mikleo's shoulder. "Are _you_ okay? We've had to deal with some pretty heavy stuff."

The memories of Michael and Muse were still fresh in his mind. The look on Muse's face, the haunted light in her eyes, as she thrust her only son - recently deceased and reborn - to Gramps was not something that would be easily forgotten.

"I'm fine," Mikleo said, but his shoulders had stiffened and Sorey knew he wasn't being truthful.

"Liar," he accused lightly.

"You shouldn't concern yourself over it."

"But that's my job! And I've been stinking at it lately. Gotta make up for missed time."

Mikleo harrumphed, and Sorey thought it sounded kind of sad. "I suppose..." He paused, and then sighed. "I suppose I'm scared too. Not just of fighting Heldalf. What will happen to you after, and what will happen to us - me, Lailah and the others..." He glanced at Zaveid's pistol, glinting innocuously in the dim light from its position atop a cracked stone. "I can't stop thinking about it. I didn't stop you from armatizing with me so much because part of me wants to - be with you as much as I can before I can't."

Sorey found Mikleo's hand with his own and squeezed it. "I know," he said, voice low.

"If you knew, why didn't you say anything?"

Sorey thought about his answer before he spoke. "Part of me feels the same. I - I guess I wanted to be selfish, just this one time."

"Keep thinking like that and you'll get corrupted," Mikleo scolded, but there was no heat behind his words.

"Nah, you guys would smack some sense into me before it could get to that point."

"Idiot," Mikleo said, but he was smiling softly.

The sky really was beautiful.

**Author's Note:**

> Who else wants a sequel where the crew just explores all the places in the Celestial Record? Kind of disappointed the game didn't have a snowy area, to be honest.


End file.
